How I Met Your Mother wrapped back in 2014, but if you are randomly binge-watching this for the first time with your Hulu subscription, this article gets into a pretty major spoiler. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
How I Met Your Mother is one of the most memorable comedies of the last 20 years. Chalk it up to fun sets and a Friends-adjacent premise. Or to episodes like “Slapsgiving” and memorable characters like Barney. Or maybe chalk it up to the divisive ending of HIMYM, an ending that left some in tears, others annoyed, and more feeling like the show’s setup with Ted and Robin justified what ultimately happened in its final episodes. Whatever you think about the way the show went out, this year is a huge –and tragic – milestone for the series, and the Internet is here to make sure you don’t forget it.
In fact, 2024 is the year the titular mother on the show dies. There’s no polite way to write that, so I think we just need to rip the Band-aid off. Tracy, who was introduced to HIMYM fans after we followed her yellow umbrella around for a while, was found to be dead when the series finale aired in 2014. In fact, she’d been gone for six years at the time of the show’s final episode. Given the comedy is set up in the future when Tracy and Ted’s kids are much older, her death occurred in 2024.
This was pointed out on Twitter (X) at the tail end of last year, but it really hit home with fans in 2024 as this is actually the year of The Mother’s passing.
tracy dies this year btw pic.twitter.com/CmtgDXmHmNJuly 1, 2024
Another fan (who may or may not be disgruntled regarding the ending), shared some memorable screenshots from the end of the sitcom, also commenting about Tracy's death. This post also hones in on the fact the series finale aired in March of 2014; we don’t know if the six years mentioned is an anniversary or just a general timeline for Tracy’s death, but based on when the events on the show happened, it’s worth pointing out.
10 years since the finale and this is also the same year that Tracy dies in the HIMYM timeline. IF YOU EVEN CARE! https://t.co/oCjaulfG5XMarch 31, 2024
Another fan only just now got the memo, writing:
just found out 2024 is the year tracy dies in how I met your mother .... don't text 😔 pic.twitter.com/lhSZmUTgRPJanuary 3, 2024
Other fans commented about the tragedy of the death date, commenting that they “definitely care” and that they are “too invested” in this story about a fictional event that happened on our TV screens a decade ago. Another fan posted a meme of Barney looking pained and saying, “I don’t like this,” when reminded of the anniversary. So, plenty of people have feelings about this particular plot, even now.
As it turns out, the entirely long story Ted Mosby was telling his kids over the course of nine seasons was really not about Tracy at all, though the couple was happy together. His kids called him out over this, and told him it was just an excuse to get permission to date Aunt Robin, which they gave. There’s actually an alternate ending that was created later that features a lot of the same footage but changes the outcomes for the characters.
But the saga of fans watching a series for nine seasons only to barely meet The Mother before the show killed her off remains one of the most memorable things to happen on television across the past two decades. Luckily, it all worked out OK for Cristin Milioti, the actress who played The Mother, as she went on to play roles in Fargo Season 2, Palm Springs, and the wild Amazon series Made for Love. Next up, you can catch her as part of The Penguin cast.
And hey--at least we got some resolution over who The Mother was, unlike How I Met Your Father, which was canceled unceremoniously.
